Looking for recipes for the foods in season in Ontario? This is the place! I aim to hit 80% local produce in my recipes. Find also notes about my experiences as an organic vegetable and fruit gardener and breeder, and visits to growers, processors and vendors of all kinds of good foods of Ontario.

Friday, 23 May 2014

Sorrel & Spinach Soup with Poached Eggs

Well, I have to admit this uses too damned many pots for a simple bowl of soup, but still, it's a very nice soup.

I am always so dubious when I pick my sorrel - it looks kind of tough and weedy, and the slugs have been at it. When you cook it, it turns kind of brownish, so it's best to mix it with spinach and/or onions as I did here, to keep the colour looking appetising. How can this be good? And yet it is! It's so sprightly, fresh and lemony, and tastes like spring in a bowl! I am on a mission to get people eating more sorrel. It's such an easy early spring green, and perennial too. It should be more widely available. But if you can't find it to buy, then maybe grow some yourself.

Scrub the potatoes, and trim or peel them. Cut them into dice, and put them in a large pot with water to cover them generously.

Wash and pick over the sorrel and spinach. Soak them both in cold salted water if you think they may harbour insects. Drain them well and chop them roughly, keeping them separate. Clean and trim the green onions, and chop them roughly as well. Wash and trim the asparagus and cut each spear into 3 or 4 pieces, if you wish to garnish your soup with asparagus.

Bring the potatoes to a boil and boil them for 10 minutes. Break the eggs in gently with the potatoes to cook them to your liking - 3 to 4 minutes for a soft egg; 8 minutes for a hard egg, or somewhere in between. Throw the asparagus in to cook with the potatoes as well at the point where there are 2 to 4 minutes left of cooking, depending on how well-done you like your asparagus.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the green onions, and cook until wilted. Add the spinach and cook it until wilted. Mix well. Add the sorrel, and cook until it too is wilted.

Transfer the vegetables to a blender, and add the broth or water, and the yogurt. Blend until combined, but still retaining a little texture. Pour the soup back into the soup pot, and bring it back up to a simmer.

Lift the eggs and asparagus from the boiled potatoes, and set them aside. Drain the potatoes and add them to the soup; mash them in roughly if you like, or leave them in cubes. Serve up the soup, adding an egg and a few pieces of asparagus to the top of each bowl of soup.